1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of decision support methods and systems for identifying production assets in complex multi-stage and multi-plant manufacturing system environments in order to track assets needed to fulfill multiple customer demands.
2. Background of the Invention
In modern complex multi-stage and multi-plant manufacturing production facilities such as those used in the semiconductor industry, assignment and tracking of production assets in a supply chain to meet multiple customer demands is not a trivial undertaking and current solutions have serious drawbacks.
In a first example, user inputted rules project asset production using the bill of material (BOM) and inter-plant transfers allowing projection to the final stocking point and then matching the projection to demand. However, accuracy of the system is entirely dependent upon the accuracy of the rules used and often results in mis-matches between projection and actual results.
In a second example, final customer information is embedded within the production-scheduling tools allowing planning and tracking through the BOM cycle. However, in very large enterprises a severe degradation in the performance of the production-scheduling tool results and it is difficult to implement this method when many different types of sub-production planning tools are scattered throughout the supply chain.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and system for generating relationships between supply chain assets in a complex multi-stage, multi-part number, and multi-plant manufacturing environment and multiple customer demands such that the generated relationships are consistent with planned production schedules for the manufacturing environment.